2 of 15

Third-year PhD student, Social Informatics research group, School of Computing

PhD title: Career information literacy and the decision-making behaviours of young people

Research interests: information literacy, information behaviour, interdisciplinarity, mixed methods research

3 of 15

Supervisory team

Dr Peter Cruickshank

https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/peter-cruickshank

Prof Peter Robertson

https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/peter-robertson

Emeritus Prof Hazel Hall

https://hazelhall.org/

4 of 15

What is career information literacy?

“an on-going personal development project, whereby individuals engage in lifelong career development and learning, and take action towards their long-term career development goals”

(Milosheva et al, 2021)

Emphasis on transitions, career identity development
Learning about one’s strengths and the world of work
Using information to make career decisions

5 of 15

What is not career information literacy?

To understand what is so special about career information literacy, and why this can be considered to be separate from employability and work information literacy, we must first understand what “career” is!

Current and temporal
Phenomena observed in workplace settings

Work

Competencies required to gain employment
External frame of reference: meeting employers’ needs

Employability

Sum of employment-related experiences over time
Personal identification with work, meanings ascribed to work

Career

6 of 15

Who is career information literacy for?��Information literacy scholars

Who are interested in:

Everyday life behaviours
Information literacy in context
Workplace and employability IL
Adult literacies
Life transitions and the information literate lifecourse
The interdisciplinary integration of IL with other fields (e.g. Career Studies)

7 of 15

Who is career information literacy for?��Librarians

Who have a role to play in:

Maintaining and signposting career resources in the library
Formal/informal IL instruction
In education: Encourage young people to research careers and employers
Public libraries: Help citizens become more employable and choose more fulfilling careers

8 of 15

Who is career information literacy for?��Citizens

Why develop career information literacy skills?

Career success is dependent upon our ability to access, use and evaluate career information
IL skills are needed to do this (well)
Learning about careers is important: it facilitates career planning and career decision-making
Career development should start as early as possible

9 of 15

Who is career information literacy for?��Career guidance practitioners and policymakers

What can be done to support career IL skills development?

Identify career IL competencies needed at different ages/stages
Embed career IL instruction in the school curriculum and university career service
Support career advisers to assist clients with queries

10 of 15

What do we know about career information literacy? Looking for career information is no walk in the park!

The career information landscape is challenging to map and navigate: students need to consult many different documents, databases and people to obtain comprehensive and relevant information (Herndon, 2012, p.66; Mowbray et al, 2018).

Many experience cognitive overload when comparing numerous competing options (The Careers & Enterprise company, 2016, pp.4-10; Hutchinson & Dickinson, 2014, p.261).

Two elements are at play here:

(1) the quality and accessibility of external informational structures

(2) one’s proficiency in filtering and evaluating incoming

information. This is where career IL comes in!

11 of 15

What do we not yet know about career information literacy? �Which skills are needed!

Career self-management skills? Life skills, problem solving skills, career learning skills, career reflection skills, social skills? (e.g. Akkermans et al, 2013; Kuijpers & Meijers, 2012)

Digital career literacy skills? Technical skills, social media skills, digital career portfolio creation skills? (e.g. Bennett and Robertson, 2015; Goe et al, 2018; Hooley, 2012; Kaeophanuek et al, 2018)

Career information literacy skills? Career research skills, critical thinking skills, transformative skills? (e.g. Lin-Stephens et al, 2019; Valentine and Kosloski, 2021;)

(d) All of the above?

12 of 15

My work so far

Secondary data analysis

Questionnaire

Interviews

Diaries

(cognitive task analysis)

Preliminary results

shared soon!

13 of 15

The bottom line

Career IL ≠ work and employability IL

Many parties are interested in career IL

There is more to discover about career IL

14 of 15

References��Akkermans, J., Brenninkmeijer, V., Huibers, M., & Blonk, R. W. (2013). Competencies for the contemporary career: Development and preliminary validation of the career competencies questionnaire. Journal of Career Development, 40(3), 245-267.��Bennett, D., & Robertson, R. (2015). Preparing students for diverse careers: Developing career literacy with final-year writing students. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 12(3), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.53761/1.12.3.5��Goe, R., Ipsen, C., & Bliss, S. (2018). Pilot testing a digital career literacy training for vocational rehabilitation professionals. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 61(4), 236–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034355217724341��Herndon, M. C. (2012). Improving consumer information for higher education planning. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2012(153), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.20007��Hooley, T. (2012). How the internet changed career: Framing the relationship between career development and online technologies. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 29(1), 3–12.��Hutchinson, J., & Dickinson, B. (2014). Employers and schools: How Mansfield is building a world of work approach. Local Economy, 29(3), 257-266.��Kaeophanuek, S., Jaitip, N.-S., & Nilsook, P. (2018). How to enhance digital literacy skills among Information Sciences students. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 8(4), 292–297. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2018.8.4.1050��Kuijpers, M., & Meijers, F. (2012). Learning for now or later? Career competencies among students in higher vocational education in the Netherlands. Studies in Higher Education, 37(4), 449-467.��Lin-Stephens, S., Kubicki, J. M., Jones, F., Whiting, M. J., Uesi, J., & Bulbert, M. W. (2019). Building student employability through interdisciplinary collaboration: an Australian Case Study. College and Undergraduate Libraries, 26(3), 234-251.��Milosheva, M., Hall, H. & Robertson, P. & Cruickshank, P. (2022). New information literacy horizons: making the case for career information literacy. In: Information literacy in a post-truth era: 7th European Conference, ECIL 2021 (online), September 20–23, 2021, revised selected papers. Springer. ��Mowbray, J., Hall, H., Raeside, R., & Robertson, P. J. (2018). Job search information behaviours: An ego-net study of networking amongst young job-seekers. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(3), 239-253.��The Careers & Enterprise company (2016). Moments of choice report. Available online at: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/research/publications/moments-choice��Valentine, K. S., & Kosloski, M. F. (2021). Developing the key constructs of career literacy: A Delphi study. Journal of Research in Technical Careers, 5(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.9741/2578-2118.1095��

1 of 15